John Grigsby (1971- ) is a British author of two books on prehistory and mythology:
Warriors of the Wasteland (Watkins, 2002) and
Beowulf and GrendelIn Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend , British author John Grigsby interprets Beowulf as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around AD 500" . Joining scholars such as Catherine M...
(Watkins, 2005).
John Grigsby received a Bachelor's degree (honors) in Prehistoric European Archeology and History. He has a Master's degree in Celtic Studies. He also made contributions to
Heaven's Mirror (
Graham HancockGraham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis , The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror , Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred...
) and the television series based upon the book,
Quest for the Lost Civilization. He is co-author of
The Mars Mystery (with Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval).
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John Grigsby (1971- ) is a British author of two books on prehistory and mythology:
Warriors of the Wasteland (Watkins, 2002) and
Beowulf and GrendelIn Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend , British author John Grigsby interprets Beowulf as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around AD 500" . Joining scholars such as Catherine M...
(Watkins, 2005).
Background
John Grigsby received a Bachelor's degree (honors) in Prehistoric European Archeology and History. He has a Master's degree in Celtic Studies. He also made contributions to
Heaven's Mirror (
Graham HancockGraham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis , The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror , Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred...
) and the television series based upon the book,
Quest for the Lost Civilization. He is co-author of
The Mars Mystery (with Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval). He is also the author of
Warriors of the Wasteland and
Beowulf and GrendelIn Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend , British author John Grigsby interprets Beowulf as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around AD 500" . Joining scholars such as Catherine M...
.
Warriors of the Wasteland
In 2002 Grigsby published
Warriors of the Wasteland. In this work Grigsby examined the Medieval legends of the Grail in light of his knowledge of Indo-European, especially Celtic, myth.
Beowulf & Grendel
Grisgby's next book
Beowulf & GrendelIn Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend , British author John Grigsby interprets Beowulf as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around AD 500" . Joining scholars such as Catherine M...
interprets
BeowulfBeowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden...
as "the recounting in poetic form of a religious conflict between two pagan cults in Denmark around AD 500" (p. 5). Described in the British newspaper the Independent as "One of the most interesting interpretations" of the legend, Grigsby's thesis is summarised thus:
"Grigsby sees the work as a poetic account of forceful suppression of an older fertility cult, with human sacrifice central to its religion, in 5th-century England, and its replacement by an incoming warrior cult. Grendel stands for a vibrant English pagan religion as rich and complex as that of the early Celts. Grendel's mother represents the outgoing fertility goddess in whose sacred Danish lakes, Tacitus recorded, human victims were drowned.
It is their bodies, Grigsby suggests, that have been found by modern archaeologists preserved in peat bogs in Denmark – naked, strangled or stabbed and whose stomach contents show had eaten a meal of barley contaminated by a hallucinogenic fungus just before they died. It was this fertility goddess...that Beowulf swam down to in his full armour to slay."
In support of his theory, Grigsby explores the same Neolithic farming cult as its starting point that he argued lay behind the Grail legends in his previous work. Grigsby argues that there are numerous links between the Celtic and Germanic myths, especially those surrounding vessels of immortality or 'meads of inspiration' that he saw as pointing to the ritual drink of an ancient mystery cult, with parallels to the
somaSoma , or Haoma , from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains many hymns praising its energizing qualities...
of Eastern tradition.
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